The construction of modern multi-floor buildings often requires temporary barriers to be erected about the building's perimeter on each floor until exterior walls or cladding can be installed. Such barriers help to ensure the safety of construction personnel and also the safety of passersby on the ground through preventing construction material and debris from being blown or otherwise falling from a building while under construction. Ideally, such barriers should be capable of withstanding a predetermined load and should be both easy to install and easy to dismantle. In multi-floor high-rise construction, safety barriers will typically be moved from floor to floor as the exterior walls are constructed. Commonly, the barriers are supported between the concrete or wooden floor systems and the ceiling system directly above.
Others have proposed a wide variety of different support posts and other components for use in association with safety barriers or safety fences. Existing support posts have been used to retain safety barriers on multi-floor construction sites, however, a number suffer from particular inherent deficiencies and limitations. For example, currently available support posts may be cumbersome to install, may be expensive to manufacture, may be easily intentionally or accidentally unlocked or dislodged, or may not be easily removed and transported to different floors for re-installation. Currently available safety barriers or safety fences also typically require adjacent fence panels to be wired together or attached to one another through the use of, in some instances, frail, cumbersome or inefficient clamps or fastening mechanisms. There is a continuing need to improve the support posts and components used in association with a safety barrier or safety fence.